This statement from Matt and Valerie O’Loughlin on the Red Zone case against Tower Insurance Limited was issued by the O’Loughlins’ lawyer, Geoff Saunders of Saunders Robinson Brown on their behalf.

“After 20 long and stressful months we can confirm that we have reached a confidential settlement with Tower over our property in Dallington, Christchurch.

When we started this journey, we never dreamed we would end up in the High Court setting a precedent before an agreement could be reached.

Our primary reason for challenging Tower was to obtain the costs of a rebuild or replacement for our house as per our policy agreement. The secondary issue in the case was the red zone. This was of vital importance to many other red zone owners as to whether being situated in the red zone itself, gave rise to a claim for replacement of a property. The Court’s decision has clarified the situation for some red zone owners. We were successful under the judgment, as our home is now designated a rebuild for the purposes of calculating a payment. We hope this will give people the confidence to fight for their rights.

The best advice we can give others in a similar situation, is to ensure they obtain the necessary professional reports to clarify and support their insurance claim, together with good legal advice.

This time has been very emotional, stressful and expensive for us and we are extremely grateful to all who have given us support financially, emotionally and legally. Special thanks to our family for their dedication to our crusade.

As we now move on with our lives, we ask that the public and media respect our privacy and the confidentiality of the agreement.

Beyond this statement we will be making no further comment.”

ENDS

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